You needed someone to tell you that a writer of fantasy novels might, in real life, be considered a dork?
I mean, I love Pratchett’s books, but I was certainly never picturing him as the world’s hippest dude.
I suppose your ex and my friend wouldn’t be one and the same person? (I’d suggest PM-ing, but my lack of computer expertise has meant that I could manage only to become a “Guest” on TSD – full “membership” defeated me – so I don’t think I can do PMs.)
This conversation with my friend was some years ago, and the details now escape me. I see to recall him saying that he wasn’t very impressed with Mr. P. as a colleague; but since I – unfortunately – detest Pratchett’s books, this tends to make me (unfairly, I know) have negative feelings about all aspects of the bloke – might have been “hearing from my friend, what I wanted to hear”.
As above, with my reply to carnut; and “dork” was perhaps not the best choice of words. I fear my dislike of the books, spills over into a lack of charity and justice on my part, toward the author himself !
I just noticed the devilized “J” in the NJ Devils logo. And I live in the freaking state.
And when rewatching the Big Bang episode when Sheldon Cooper’s fantasy world account gets hacked and the person steals everything, including his ostrich, Cooper remarks “Glen was the only bird I liked.” Well, duh. It has been established that he is petrified of birds, so a cyberbird is obviously the only bird he’d like.
I like Pratchett, but feel similarly about Douglas Adams. Many people find the Hitchhiker’s series to be hilarious. I find it mildly amusing in places and largely forced and unfunny. But I wouldn’t use that as a reason to hate the author as a person.
I acknowledge, it’s bad of me to do so; but we’re all sinners, and do things which are wrong, and which we regret, but which It’s hard not to do.
[sub]I thought that was just me.[/sub]
Coincident with the release of that movie, the TV show Disneylandp presented an epidode entitled “The Peter Tchaikovsky Story”, which gave a very prettified portrait of the composer’s life:
http://www.tv.com/shows/disneyland/the-peter-tchaikovsky-story-186097/
So when the movie came out, you kinda couldn’t miss it. Of course, in recent releases and for the videos they didn’t make such a big deal, but I think the episode is on at least one of the DVD releases of Sleeping Beauty.
I loved the radio play and the first book but after about halfway through the second book I felt he ran out of steam.
Side note: yesterday, while playing World of Warcraft, I spotted a player character named “Sheldocooper” 
A lot of people dispute the notion that “Brown Eyed Girl” is about anal sex. I agree with them, the crudity of it being about anal sex just doesn’t jibe with the first love theme of the song. I always tended to think it was about a woman who had brown skin as well as brown eyes, and her casual initiation of the narrator into sexuality. Of course, it may have been a sly bit of contrast on van Morrison’s part, but it’s just not necessary or all that convincing to buy into the notion. Much more interesting to think of it as a man ruminating on a fleeting love that nonetheless has deep meaning for him.
Similarly, Jackson Brown’s “Running on Empty” being about masturbation is another reductionist interpretation that does the song disservice. It’s clearly about a man who has lost the idealism/passion/drive that he had as a youth but is still driven by the life he leads as a result of those passions. It’s a much more interesting and satisfying interpretation than “masturbating.” YMMV of course, but after you’ve heard a few of these reductionist interpretations, you tend to get cynical about them. Just some buy saying “ah, it’s about masturbation” or “ah, it’s about anal sex” so they don’t have to mess with the more complex meanings.
And yes, I know this is a response to posts on the first page of a zombie thread that is thirty pages long, but I thought it would be fun to do a little time dilation here.
I have to say, I’ve never heard either of those interpretations for those two songs, for which I am profoundly grateful. I guess making up that kind of stupidity is what bored people did before they could troll on YouTube comments.
I just watched Hannah and Her Sisters for the first time in years. That’s the one where Woody Allen’s character has a crisis of faith and tries other religions/beliefs. First is Catholicism, and there’s a scene where he comes home with a paper bag and empties it. A crucifix. A Bible. A picture of Jesus. Then a loaf of bread and a jar of mayo. Previously, I’d thought the last two were random items, like the religion store was next to a 7-11 and he didn’t want to make two trips. Now I get it: the Wonder bread and Hellman’s mayonnaise are related to the first three items. If he’s going to be Catholic, or at any rate, not-Jewish, he’ll have to get used to bland food.
(As an Italian-American, I find that inaccurate. My very Catholic great-aunt Rosie, for instance, was an epic cook and would have shot any Hostess product that dared cross her threshold. But not all Catholics are created equal.)
One that struck me while discussing the scene in question here earlier today…
In Red Dwarf Back To Earth, the Boys, at one point, have to track down a fellow named Swallow.
Now, BTE is full of Blade Runner references, such as Swallow being based on Hannibal Chew.
It wasn’t until I wrote that sentence in the other threat that it struck me…
Chew->Swallow.:smack:
A couple having to do with West Side Story.
I grew up listening to the cast album of WSS and seeing the movie, so naturally there were some things that went over my head as a kid, and even the first time I read the published script.
I was too young at first to realize that Tony and Maria slept together after “Somewhere”, although they could only go so far in 1957 (play) and 1961 (movie) in implying it. Furthermore, when Anita arrives at the apartment and realizes Tony has been there, she is described as looking at the bed, then turning to Maria with an accusing look. It didn’t occur to me until much later exactly WHY that look at the bed would have told her the truth…well, at first, I thought it was just the rumpled sheets.
Then there’s Anita’s so-called “taunting” scene. Of course, it didn’t occur to me at a younger age that this was an attempted rape (which, again, they could only go so far in implying–other, later productions have gone farther). But there’s also the line “Will you let me pass?” “She’s too dark to pass.” At first, I thought that line meant “we don’t let any Puerto Ricans in here.” It wasn’t until later that I realized it was a pun on “passing for white.”
There’s also something in the “Little House” books that didn’t hit me until later–mainly, in the next-to-last one, These Happy Golden Years. In it, Laura has a teaching job far away, and is boarding with a couple in a small claim shanty. The wife, Mrs. Brewster, hates life on the prairie and wants to go back East. In the middle of one night, Laura awakes to see Mrs. Brewster brandishing a knife in front of her husband and begging to go back East. At first, I thought she was threatening to kill him, but later on I realized that her line “If I can’t go back home one way, I will another,” meant that she was threatening suicide.
Matter of fact, I had a little more sympathy with Mrs. Brewster (real name, Mrs. Bouchie) when I learned more about what life could be like on that prairie and realized she was probably suffering from severe depression, brought on by isolation.
I’m into puns but sometimes it takes me years to get them.
Mental Floss being a play on dental floss only struck me a week or two ago.
Also the Diageo PR bustup Arthur’s Day is held on a Thursday, Arthursday.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irishman
I like Pratchett, but feel similarly about Douglas Adams. Many people find the Hitchhiker’s series to be hilarious. I find it mildly amusing in places and largely forced and unfunny. But I wouldn’t use that as a reason to hate the author as a person.
Nah, me as well. I find it cynical and somewhat contemptuous of its readers too.
I don’t know if we can consider the naming of sports teams as “creative work”, but I’ll toss this out there: Until I watched this video of MC Lars’ “Flow Like Poe”, it had never dawned on me that the Baltimore Ravens NFL team was named in honor of Baltimore’s own Edgar Allan Poe, author of “The Raven”.
I came to that same realization (minus the music video) in January.
Spider Man and Doctor Octopus
Eight legs.
Realized while reading this thread. Haven’t finished, hope it’s not already listed.
I just realized something about an old, old Mad parody. It appeared in the early 1960s, and was a parody of the TV western Bonanza, called Bananaz, featuring a “script” by Lou Silverstone and spot-on caricatures by Mort Drucker. The whole Bonanza crew was there, including Michael Landon as “Little Joe” Cartwright. In the parody, he’s drawn as a virtual midget, and his character is called “Short Mort”. I thought it was just a joke name, with “short” rhyming with “Mort”, which seemed an unlikely name for a character with as common a name as “Joe”.
It didn’t hit me until the other day that Silverstone probably took a joke name that had been a running gag among the Madmen (the way, in the Harry Potter parodies they called the game “quidditch” by the name “Squamish”, which is funny because in the 1960s Mad had parodied organized sport by coming up with a wholly imaginary game called “43 man Squamish”, with ludicrous made-up rules. Which, arguably, describes Quidditch as well. It’s really funny because of the similarity of the name of their older parody to J.K. Rowling’s game) and applied it to a Bonanza character. They chose it because it had that “short” in there, so it fit “Little Joe” pretty well.
But why would “Short Mort” be a running gag? Because the French slang for orgasm is le petit mort, or “the little death”. It doesn’t take a big leap for an American a little knowledgeable about French to turn that phrase into the nickname “Short Mort”, since “petit” means “little” or “short”, and “short Mort” rhymes nicely. So “Short Mort” looks like the nickname of a character which derives pretty transparently from slang for “orgasm”, but isn’t immediately obvious. I’ll bet they were just looking for an opportunity to use that name, and Bonza’s “Little Joe” gave them an excuse to trot out an almost obviously sexual pun and use it in a parody, with a thread of justification. It’s like having a butler address Anthony Perkins’ character as “Master Bates”*
*A joke using “master Bates”/masturbates really did circulate in the 19th century. Nothing is new under the sun.